more than would be indicated by the advance in retail prices. of articles of food (15.7 per cent. in the North Atlantic states; 16.8 per cent. for the country as a whole). According to the Bureau of Labor's statistics of wholesale prices, the advance in the price of food has been much less than that of other articles. The same ratio applied to retail prices would indicate a general advance of 20.5 per cent. instead of 16.8 per cent., and this figure would be still higher (at least 25 per cent.) if Dun's index number were substituted. The item of rent would still be left out, and while rents have largely increased, especially in the great cities of this state, the increase is undoubtedly less than the increase in the wholesale price of building materials (42 per cent.). On the whole, it seems reasonable to say that the cost of living of working-people in this state has increased in the period 1897-1905 somewhere between 25 and 30 per cent., with the probabilities favoring the upper rather than the lower limit. Meanwhile earnings have increased between 35 and 40 per

cent.

1

IV.

HOURS OF LABOR.

In last year's report attention was called to the fact that in the manufacturing establishments of the State the normal working day had then for the first time been reduced to less than sixty hours a week, that is, less than ten hours a day. The movement for shorter hours, which has been in steady progress for many years, continued in 1905, as shown in the factory inspection report and in the tables of this report. Of the 857,000 operatives employed in factories visited by the inspectors 53 per cent. were working less than 58 hours a week (91⁄2 hours a day), as compared with 38 per cent. four years ago.* The changes in the various industrial groups are revealed in the following table:

TABLE 22.-PERCENTAGE OF OPERATIVES IN EACH INDUSTRY WHOSE WEEKLY WORKING HOURS WERE LESS THAN 58.

In 1901 the ten-hour day prevailed in all but two-building and printing industries-of the thirteen classes of industries; in 1902 the clothing and millinery group was added to the exceptions; in 1904, the chemical industries and in 1905, stone and clay products, making five groups or classes of industries in which the number of operatives working 91⁄2 hours or less ex

*PROPORTION OF FACTORY OPERATIVES WHOSE WEEKLY WORKING HOURS FELL WITHIN THE SPECIFIED LIMITS IN THE YEAR

ceeded the number working 10 hours or more. Further light is thrown on the matter by the following table showing

TABLE 23.-THE WEEKLY HOURS OF LABOR IN 1905 BY GROUPS OF INDUSTRIES.

In the building trades a majority (56 per cent.) of the men employed in workshops inspected worked fewer than 51 hours a week, and none worked over 63 hours, but that is the only manufacturing industry in which the eight-hour day prevails. In three industries or classes of industries the prevailing weekly schedule is between 52 and 57 hours, conforming virtually to a nine-hour day: chemicals, printing, clothing. In seven groups, the prevailing hours are 58-63 a week or ten daily: stone and pottery products, metal and machine-making industries, woodworking, leather, textiles, food and tobacco, warehousing. The two remaining groups (paper mills, water, power and lighting plants) still adhere to a schedule in excess of 101⁄2 hours a day; their plants are run continuously with day and night shifts, but even here there is a tendency to substitute three shifts of employees for two.

Particulars as to the reduction of working hours are obtained from the workmen's associations, and as few permanent reductions in hours are made by employers except upon the interven tion of the employees' organizations, the reports in all probability furnish a pretty fair statement of the movement. The following table summarizes the changes reported in the last five years:

TABLE 24-CHANGES IN THE HOURS OF LABOR REPORTED BY TRADE UNIONS IN NEW YORK.

Since 1902 the number of reductions in hours has decreased and in 1905 only 5,959 workers were thus benefited,-a number even smaller than that in 1904. On the other hand, a considerable number of workers, 722, as compared with 66 a year ago, had to submit to an increase in working hours. The total net decrease for all workers affected averaged 4.6 hours a week. The figures for each industry or group of trades were as follows:

TABLE 25-CHANGES IN HOURS OF LABOR IN 1905: BY INDUSTRIES.

So far as numbers are concerned, the industries that were most prominent in the shorter hour movement in 1905 were transportation and printing. In each case, however, the movement was largely confined to one or two trades in New York City and not generally shared in by other localities. Thus 1,500 of the 1,854 benefited in transportation were teamsters (building material drivers) in New York who, on June 1, substituted a nine-hour for a ten-hour work-day. Trainmen in New York, Schenectady and Whitehall reduced their working hours from 12 to 11 a day (7 days a week).

In the printing industry the largest group of workers benefited were photo-engravers in New York City, whose weekly hours. on July 1 were reduced from 52 to 49. The New York stereotypers on January 1 substituted eight for nine hours and compositors gained shorter hours in Batavia, Binghamton, Gloversville, Ithaca, Niagara Falls, Rome, Schenectady and Yonkers.

In the building trades 450 tile layers' helpers in New York City changed from a 44 to a 47 hour week, thus accounting for more than one-half of all the workers whose hours of labor were reported as having increased in 1905. Of the 861 men in the building trades who obtained reductions, the largest single body consisted of 300 paving laborers in New York City, who in

March replaced a ten-hour work-day with an eight-hour day. Others benefited were the bricklayers of Cortland, New Rochelle, Oneida and Plattsburg; electrical workers in Elmira and Auburn; painters in Binghamton, Liberty and Waterford; plumbers in New Rochelle and Olean; sheet metal workers in Oswego and Utica, etc.

In the metal trades there were substantial gains reported by iron moulders in Plattsburg and Sandy Hill, horseshoers in Utica, boiler makers in Mechanicville, core makers in Schenectady and horse nail makers in Keeseville.

Stationary engineers and firemen were successful in several localities in reducing their unusually long hours. The most frequent change was from 12 to 8 hours a day (84 to 56 hours a week) as in Rochester, Ballston Spa, and the breweries of Albany and Troy. So large a reduction is explained by the necessity of continuous service and the consequent substitution of three shifts for two.

The following is a list of the trades that secured the eighthour day:

Stationary engineers and firemen, Albany-Troy, Rochester, Ballston, etc.......

106

GROUP XIII.

Paper makers, Ballston, Luzerne..

102

1,069